SURFACE MODIFICATIONS FOR IMPROVED MANEUVERABILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF AN AIRCRAFT

The work describes a comparative study of aerodynamic characteristics of an aircraft wing model with and without surface modifications to it. The surface modifications that are considered here are outward dimples on the wing model. In the present study, results of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis are presented showing variance in lift and drag of modified wing models at different angle of attacks. Dimples on the surface aircraft wing model doesn‟t affect much the pressure drag since it‟s already aerodynamic in shape but it can affect the angle of stall. This project verifies if the dimples that reduce a golf ball's drag, can also increase an airplane's critical angle of stall. Dimples delay the boundary layer separation by creating more turbulence over the surface. The airfoil profile considered here is NACA-0018 with uniform cross-section throughout the length of airfoil. Subsonic flows are considered for the study. The CAD model is prepared in CatiaV5 R18 and simulations are carried out in Comsol 3.4 and Comsol 4.0. The overall aim of the study is improved maneuverability and performance of an aircraft. The results justify the increase in the overall lift and reduction in drag of the aircraft, also change of stall angle with different surface modifications on the wing model is observed